11 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

That makes sense regarding the writing.

If this even makes sense, I view Budig as my first Michelle (I only saw the very end of Miner, but clearly didn't have the emotional attachment, not seeing Marueen's death). So having a new Michelle (like fans did with Budig coming in) is hard for me. But, for my Michelle, I never would have wanted her to get involved in the mob. I'm nervous, but also kind of intrigued, to see if I'd be into this mob thing or not. I say that because my soap knowledge tells me Danny and Michelle were super popular, so there had to be something special there... but I don't normally enjoy mob-style stories.

I totally get the "your Michelle" thing. It really took me until the rewatch to appreciate Kimberly Simms' Mindy. "My Mindy" is always Krista Tesearu.

That channel also has two full or partial episodes I know I've seen parts of in clip form but I'm not sure if I've seen in episodic form.

Guiding Light - (1979?) (Holly returns from trial)

Guiding Light (1979?) (Amanda and Ben) - YouTube

The second episode has an excellent scene with Diane and Ann Jeffers at around 8 minutes. Such complex and honest writing about the pressures on women in society and in the workforce - something that GL would jettison as the '80s began (for all the businesswomen on GL in the early '80s, how often does it all feel like just actors on sets holding files?) but I can hear traces of with Curlee later on.

Sofia Landon is just superb. Truly one of the most original actresses in GL's history.

Before Diane starts browbeating her, I could swear Ann was flirting with her. That would have been an interesting story. They have more chemistry than Otalia did.

4 hours ago, DRW50 said:

That channel also has two full or partial episodes I know I've seen parts of in clip form but I'm not sure if I've seen in episodic form.

Guiding Light - (1979?) (Holly returns from trial)

Guiding Light (1979?) (Amanda and Ben) - YouTube

The second episode has an excellent scene with Diane and Ann Jeffers at around 8 minutes. Such complex and honest writing about the pressures on women in society and in the workforce - something that GL would jettison as the '80s began (for all the businesswomen on GL in the early '80s, how often does it all feel like just actors on sets holding files?) but I can hear traces of with Curlee later on.

Sofia Landon is just superb. Truly one of the most original actresses in GL's history.

Before Diane starts browbeating her, I could swear Ann was flirting with her. That would have been an interesting story. They have more chemistry than Otalia did.

The second episode was sublime. WOW. Thanks for sharing @DRW50. That scene at the 8 and half minute in particular was really good. I also detected the note of flirtation at the beginning. The chemistry is there. It almost feels more modern than what we see today on our screens. Not a note of camp... very nuanced acting, memorable dialogue... even the thunder outside and the menacing little music... set the tone so well. "Get what you want out of life... before it's too late." This is really my motto in life.

12 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

I’m up to October 26, 1998.

Michelle and Bill meet on the beach and he tells her about Dinah taking the blood pressure pills and how worried he is about her. They get a little sentimental and Bill surprises her with a kiss. She’s taken aback and gets a little angry, but Bill said he looks and feels different and he’s no longer a kid. He then tells her he’s going to Millennium’s opening night and will pick her up, leaving her a bit stunned. She goes to Dahlia and begs her to go with her so it doesn’t seem like it’s a date with Bill. Meanwhile, Drew/Jesse/Mick are getting ready for the Millennium opening when Selena shows up and Drew is nice to her. Privately Mick tells Selena that he told Drew about Selena needing money to find her kid. The party starts and LOL - it’s full of extras swing dancing to big brass band music, which is not the vibe I was expecting from this new, hip nightclub. Harley and Phillip show up and laugh about how they’re too old to be there. The new actress playing Vicky debuts by showing up to the opening (10/15), telling David she just got back to town after touring the world for Spaulding. Not sure why we needed a recast, but we’ll see how she does. Later, Bill asks Michelle to dance and she finally tells him she’s in love with Jesse and they’re moving in together, which upsets him, but he continues to tell her he only wants the best for her. Drew keeps pulling Jesse into pictures and interviews with the press, which makes Michelle sad seeing the two of them so happy and close. Marcus arrives at the party (wow!) and Dahlia sees him from a distance and immediately grabs David to dance with her, which Marcus sees. He interrupts them and Dahlia tells him she knows about his other woman. He said he came to apologize and it was just a one time thing. He convinces her to leave the party so they can talk and she agrees. Later at the diner, he says he’s taking breaks from touring around Christmas so they can spend more time together. He leaves to take a call and a woman comes into the diner and says she’s looking for her boyfriend named Marcus Williams, pissing off Dahlia once again. Marcus comes back and sees them together and comes clean (what a dog!). He breaks up with the girl and tells Dahlia he’s never stopped loving her and wants to make it work out. The girl leaves and Dahlia slaps Marcus. He said he doesn’t want to lose her, but Dahlia says he already has. These scenes were well-acted but felt empty to me since we didn’t see the build-up to this point (just told), and it’s been a year since the writers even focused on them. This was Marcus’s last episode (10/22), a shame that we didn’t even see Marcus/Griffin have a final scene or closure as son/father. Typical of GL though with their B-character departures that I’ve seen.

Selena catches Mick selling drugs to a customer and she lays into him. Buzz then shows up and again comments how old he is for the party (even though the music is for his generation haha), and he and Selena start dancing. A man comes up to Selena and assumes she’s a prostitute, which makes Selena cry and Buzz consoles her. After the party is over, Drew makes Jesse stay to count the money with her which annoys Michelle. Bill tells her to dance with him so they can make Jesse jealous, so they do in front of Drew/Jesse. Jesse doesn’t seem to be fazed by it and eventually takes Michelle home.

Frank puts Ken on suicide watch at the police station. Harley starts to suspect Frank is more interested in Teri and she gets him to admit they kissed. He promises her that it’ll never happen again and Harley tries to convince him to get a new partner because one thing will lead to another. He gets her to promise that she won’t call Eleni in Greece about it. However, Harley does makes calls to get more information on Teri’s past.

Teri goes to Reva’s house and tells her about the call she got from Annie. Shane then runs in and said some strange lady gave him a note, which based on his description of her, it matches the sketching of Annie from the dollmaker. The note wants Reva to meet her and refers to the carousel house that Josh bought Annie before. Reva, like an idiot, goes to the carousel house to find Annie. Why she isn’t taking police with her is beyond me, considering this lady left her on a plane to die. Teri tells Josh about the note and the two show up just as Reva finds a note. Teri realizes it’s a trap and just as Reva takes the note, Teri pushes her out of the way as wood falls from the ceiling. Frank and the cops show up and find a bodybag, shovel and duct tape outside the property. They read the note which says her wish is to have Reva dead. At the police station, they bring Alan in because they found his cufflinks in her stolen car. He denies seeing Annie and continues to say Annie is the victim in all of this. They get a lead on where Annie is staying so they all go to the apartment and bust down the door and find a creepy shrine to Josh. They also find love letters to Josh hidden in her desk. Meanwhile, Alan gets more emails from Annie saying she’s running out of time and money and needs his help. She wants him to meet her at the docks, so he goes down there looking for her and yells out how much he loves her. All of a sudden, a little boat explodes and Alan screams out to her and cries. Lizzie tells Phillip and Harley about the emails, so Phillip goes to the docks and Harley calls Frank and everyone heads to the docks. They all search the water for a body because Alan thinks he saw someone on the boat and they all assume Annie died. The divers find a body which is burned beyond recognition, but Reva still doesn’t think Annie is dead. They bring out the items from the body and Josh identifies the wedding band he gave Annie. Later, the dental records come back as a match between the body and Annie, but Reva still doesn’t believe it. As they wait for more DNA test results, they bring out Ken and use a specialized doctor to administer a new truth drug. Holly is against it, but Ken wants to proceed. Teri offers to take the drug first to prove it’s safe, but Frank says no and he will do it instead. On the side, Harley warns Teri to stop flirting with Frank. On the drug, the doctor starts asking Frank questions and it works. Harley tells him to call Eleni afterwards, while he’s on the drug, and he does, meaning the drug has a certain level of persuasion associated to it. As they start to drug Ken, Teri allows Ross and Holly to observe but kicks Harley out of the station, which pisses her off. On the drug, Ken says he has spaces in memory and isn’t sure if he could have done the stalking then, but he never wants to hurt people and is sad about how families are broken up. So he doesn’t help or hurt his case unfortunately.

The DNA results come back and Teri/Frank deliver the results to everyone at the Spaulding Mansion. Teri/Frank were with the evidence the entire time, so there could have been no tampering with or switching of the DNA. The conclusive results say the dead body is Annie’s! Alan doesn’t believe it though, as he heard her whisper to him and he’s sure she’s still alive. Ben then walks in with Annie’s will that she left him, as her former prosecutor. He reads the will, giving Alan her written wedding vows, Beth her wedding dress in hopes she can wear it when marrying Phillip (and not that ‘deceitful piece of trash Harley Cooper’ LOL), and for Reva/Josh, a coin with a Latin phrase. Vicky immediately panics and tells them not to touch the coin because she has experience with ancient coins like that, which has a powerful curse connected to it. They mostly call it a joke and Reva throws the coin in the trash and leaves. Later, Vicky and Beth realize the coin is gone and no longer in the trash!

Harley tells Lizzie that she’s marrying Phillip and asks her to be the flower girl, which makes Lizzie so excited. Beth walks in and Lizzie tells her all about it, but Beth doesn’t let it get to her. She later has flashbacks to her engagement and wedding to Phillip (which was nice for me to see).

Cassie goes to the hospital and tells Dinah that she broke up with Hart and she can have him. She tells Dinah she better take good care of him or else. Dinah is happy, but a nurse comes in and needs Dinah to sign her baby’s death certificate, which makes Dinah break down in front of Cassie. Cassie ends up hugging her before leaving. Later, Hart finally takes Dinah home and they enjoy each other’s company. As they’re laughing, Cassie calls but doesn’t say anything once she hears the laughter. Later, Hart runs into her at the Towers and they have a nice talk outside, he gives her his jacket and he feels the baby kick. Meanwhile, Dinah is telling Vanessa Hart wants nothing to do with Cassie and she’ll never have to tell him the truth about her own baby not being his.

Ross goes to the house to see the kids and realizes as he tucks them into bed that he can’t break his family up. He tells Blake and Ben that he no longer wants to sue for custody, instead he wants to bring his family back together for the kids. Ben doesn’t buy it and tries to talk sense into Blake, but she asks Ben to leave because she wants her family back together too. Ben pouts about it and walks out. Ross then tells Blake he was cheated before from being a father because he couldn’t raise Dinah, so he doesn’t want to lose the chance again with the boys. They hug each other, and outside, Ben throws away his picture of Blake and the boys. The next morning, Ross/Blake and the boys wake up together in bed and everything seems to be happy (which seemed like a fast resolution, but I’m happy this story is finally moving forward and hopefully to something new). Well nevermind, Ben goes to Frank and says he’s reopening the case against Ross given that he tried to kill him. Also, Ross can’t go through with having sex because he keeps thinking about Blake/Ben together, so they fight about it all over again. Ross eventually says he can stay in the house and be there for the boys, but anything more is impossible at the moment, but Blake doesn’t want to play fake house like that.

Vicky and Vanessa continue to butt heads at Spaulding, and Vicky starts to catch on that there is tension between Vanessa and Beth because of Matt. She goes to Beth and suggests they play into the jealousy to drive Vanessa out of Spaulding so Vicky can take over. Beth says don’t count on her since it’s backhanded, but she’ll think about it.

I loved reading this. Thank you! The Annie stuff is very creepy. A shrine to Josh! I suppose this is the new Annie... after Watros left, if I'm not mistaken. I wanted to ask you... but I always forget... out of the years you recently saw... which has been the strongest in your opinion?

Edited 10 hours ago10 hr by Maxim

Nice that "The Land of Wishes, Hopes and Dreams" was being referenced to. That carousel set was definitely... a choice.

6 hours ago, Maxim said:

I loved reading this. Thank you! The Annie stuff is very creepy. A shrine to Josh! I suppose this is the new Annie... after Watros left, if I'm not mistaken. I wanted to ask you... but I always forget... out of the years you recently saw... which has been the strongest in your opinion?

Aww thanks! I wasn't sure how I'd like Annie's return with a new face, but they've weaved it into the greater Nursery Rhyme Stalker storyline, so it's actually entertaining to me. Is it a stretch? For sure, but I guess anything is fair game now after the clone storyline haha.

So I'm close to wrapping up 1998 and here is the order of my favorite years so far:

1. 1995 - absolutely loved the umbrella story of Brent/Marian and Lucy/A-M; Dinah's arrival; Michael Zaslow still being around; Marj Dusay is a favorite of mine. It just felt like a more normal GL with less gimmicks; family and community feel and good mixture of upper/middle/lower class families; good neighborhood buzz around the diner, police station, newspaper, etc.

2. 1997 - Annie's downward spiral was really entertaining; Jesse/Michelle's relationship and Maureen coming back; Abby/Rick's relationship; Matt/Vanessa finding each other on chat rooms from across the globe haha.

3. 1998 - first half was way too clone-heavy, but Annie's departure and Reva being on the island were fun; second half got really good for me with the Nursery Rhyme Stalker story; Ben/Blake/Ross was good in the beginning but has dragged on too long now.

4. 1996 - too many horrible or boring storylines (5th Street revival; Lonatrat; Grant family destruction)

There are many more pros/cons to each year, but that's what sticks out for me right now. 😀

4 hours ago, Spoon said:

Nice that "The Land of Wishes, Hopes and Dreams" was being referenced to. That carousel set was definitely... a choice.

LOL yes - those exact words were on Annie's note. I thought we saw the end of that carousel, but nope, it came back! Haha.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by alwaysAMC

27 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

Aww thanks! I wasn't sure how I'd like Annie's return with a new face, but they've weaved it into the greater Nursery Rhyme Stalker storyline, so it's actually entertaining to me. Is it a stretch? For sure, but I guess anything is fair game now after the clone storyline haha.

So I'm close to wrapping up 1998 and here is the order of my favorite years so far:

1. 1995 - absolutely loved the umbrella story of Brent/Marian and Lucy/A-M; Dinah's arrival; Michael Zaslow still being around; Marj Dusay is a favorite of mine. It just felt like a more normal GL with less gimmicks; family feel and good mixture of upper/middle/lower class families; good neighborhood buzz around the diner, police station, newspaper, etc.

2. 1997 - Annie's downward spiral was really entertaining; Jesse/Michelle's relationship and Maureen coming back; Abby/Rick's relationship; Matt/Vanessa finding each other on chat rooms from across the globe haha.

3. 1998 - first half was way too clone-heavy, but Annie's departure and Reva being on the island were fun; second half got really good for me with the Nursery Rhyme Stalker story; Ben/Blake/Ross was good in the beginning but has dragged on too long now.

4. 1996 - too many horrible or boring storylines (5th Street revival; Lonatrat; Grant family destruction)

There are many more pros/cons to each year, but that's what sticks out for me right now. 😀

LOL yes - those exact words were on Annie's note. I thought we saw the end of that carousel, but nope, it came back! Haha.

What a fantastic reply! Thank you. Now I realize that I need to return to 1993 GL, where I paused, sooner or later (hopefully in this decade or the next 😄). I want to see the full Marion Crane storyline. Just for the hell of it. Your post has just reinforced this for me. I also feel like I will love Annie.

9 hours ago, Maxim said:

The second episode was sublime. WOW. Thanks for sharing @DRW50. That scene at the 8 and half minute in particular was really good. I also detected the note of flirtation at the beginning. The chemistry is there. It almost feels more modern than what we see today on our screens. Not a note of camp... very nuanced acting, memorable dialogue... even the thunder outside and the menacing little music... set the tone so well. "Get what you want out of life... before it's too late." This is really my motto in life.

There is so much respect for the audience's intelligence in this era of GL. Nearly every character has an inner life, you can understand them, and even the characters who aren't painted as complex are still treated with dignity. It's something GL would never have so consistently after this time, and I don't know how often the Dobsons ever managed this again either. And I agree that the Diane conversation feels so modern. I'm never not impressed by how smart the show is and how little they care about going along with ideas of what a soap is meant to be. The Dobsons did some tropes, of course, but overall, so much of the show is fresh and confident.

24 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

There is so much respect for the audience's intelligence in this era of GL. Nearly every character has an inner life, you can understand them, and even the characters who aren't painted as complex are still treated with dignity. It's something GL would never have so consistently after this time, and I don't know how often the Dobsons ever managed this again either. And I agree that the Diane conversation feels so modern. I'm never not impressed by how smart the show is and how little they care about going along with ideas of what a soap is meant to be. The Dobsons did some tropes, of course, but overall, so much of the show is fresh and confident.

One thing that modern trying-to-grab-your-attention shows fail to achieve with me... this 1979 clip did so effortlessly. When it ended... I wanted to keep watching.